Manny Pacquiao Is an All-Time Great Even If He Never Faces Floyd Mayweather

Manny Pacquiao might never face Floyd Mayweather Jr. It might be the biggest dream of millions of boxing fans, but the reality is that the odds of this fight not happening are pretty high.

Still, I believe that whether he fights Mayweather or not should not determine where Pacquiao will rank on the all-time list. Even if we never witness this fight, Pac-Man deserves to be designated as one of the all-time greats.

Quality of Opposition

Unless some current champions, Pac-Man had an outstanding quality of opposition throughout his career. In the past six years, he has faced Juan Manuel Marquez, Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley. These boxers won several world titles and have a combined record of 413 wins and 49 losses. That is a win percentage of 89 percent.

Regarding his quality of opposition, Pac-Man deserves to be classified as one of the all-time bests.

Boxing Titles

Manny Pacquiao has registered a win in eight different weight class and won major world titles in six different weight divisions. His first ever title was the WBC Flyweight title. At that time, in 1998, he was fighting at 112 pounds.

More than a decade later, the Filipino icon grabbed the WBC Super Welterweight belt. Indeed, Pac-Man grabbed a title at 154 pounds, which is 42 more pounds than his weight back in 1998.

Some boxers lose the edge when going up in weight categories, but not Pacquiao. In every division he has entered, he has become the best.

International recognitions

Pacquiao got several major recognitions in the past years. In fact, the Boxing Writers Association of America chose him as the fighter of the past decade. HBO awarded him the same honor. ESPN also gave him the honors of the fighter of the year in 2006, 2008 and 2009. The Ring had the same idea since they gave him the same title in these three years.

Definitely, around the boxing world, people already classify Pac-Man has one of the best fighters to ever be in the ring.

Global influence

Pacquiao has a great record against a solid opposition and grabbed several titles in his career. However, his legacy will be more than that.

Pac-Man popularized the sport in numerous countries. From as far as I can remember, I have always seen Pacquiao in the hot keywords provided by Bleacher Report. People talk about him in Europe, Asia and America.

His popularity has no limits and is worldwide. A legend has been developed around Pacquiao as the man who experienced some success at being a fighter, actor, politician and entrepreneur. He helped boxing get attention in new markets. Even non-boxing fans know who Pacquiao is.

Not many boxers had the same impact throughout their career. In 2009, he even made the list of the TIME magazine in the 100 most influential people (Heroes and Icons Category.) Pacquiao is the fighter with the biggest influence since Muhammad Ali.

Love him or hate him, Pacquiao has been successful in everything he did. He never made the news for bad reasons and has a long term relationship with his coach Freddie Roach. His record speaks for itself and so does its actions.

Pacquiao will be remembered forever as one of the all-time bests fighters to ever fight.

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